Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners; renewable energy and green IT service providers; Today's sustainability news also involves management consultants; CIOs; chief sustainability officers (CSOs), c-suite members and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Partnership - Buildings and Software: Building Transparency and One Click LCA are partnering to improve data sharing and decarbonization across the building sector.
2. Partnership - Asset Management: RF Code and Schneider Electric are partnering to help customers address autonomous asset lifecycle management in data centers. The software integration can assist data center partners and customers with asset utilization, capacity planning, audit efficiency, asset disposition, and sustainability initiatives, the companies said.
3. Partnership - Asset Performance Management: GE Vernova and AWS are partnering to help energy companies address asset performance management (APM) across turbines, transmission lines and more.
4. Partnership - Net Zero Data Sharing: Arup and the Open Data Institute (ODI) have extended their ongoing partnership -- which focuses on net zero data sharing initiatives
5. Compliance Software - Part One: Coolset has launched a sustainability compliance management solution for mid-market companies that need to address Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Coolset, formerly known as Greencast.io, raised €1.5 million in seed funding in early 2024. Global Cleantech Capital led the round, and joined by first investor Shamrock Ventures, Horizon, The Sharing Group and various angels.
6. Compliance Software - Part Two: BeCause is preparing to launch a digital tool that "helps global hotel chains meet their reporting and compliance obligations under the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)," the company said.
7. Talent and Leadership - Legal Services: Dentons has named Michael Duvall and Noor Kapdi as co-chairs of the firm's Global ESG Practice Leadership Team.
8. Open Source: LF Energy, an open source foundation focused on the energy transition, has launched four new open source technical projects and three new working groups. These initiatives will provide the energy sector with new resources around:
- digital substations;
- preparing for extreme weather events;
- taking advantage of advances in data and AI technologies; and more.
9. Research - Digital Twins for Buildings Market Growth Forecast: Global spending on technology that supports digital twins for buildings will reach $20.2 billion in 2032, up from $1.6 billion in 2023, according to Astute Analytica. That's a 32.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the firm said. Digital twin technologies allow customers to develop virtual simulations of physical buildings. The approach can help to optimize energy efficiency, reduce costs and carbon footprints, and perhaps even increase property values.
10. Research - U.S. CXO Survey Results: Here's how U.S. public sector CXOs are tackling sustainability, according to Deloitte.
11. Research - CEO Perspectives: Roughly 55% of U.S. CEOs expect to see "significant returns" on their sustainability investments within three to five years, according to the 2024 KPMG US CEO Outlook Pulse Survey. Still, only 19% of CEOs expect to see significant returns within one to three years.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Accelerator: HP Inc. and the HP Foundation have selected 10 nonprofit organizations in Brazil, Canada, and Poland for the 2024 Digital Equity Accelerator. Each nonprofit will receive a $100,000 grant, about $100,000 in HP technology, and a six-month training program to help strengthen capacity and scale impact, the PC and printer maker said.
2. Funding - Carbon Accounting Software: Sumday of Tasmania has raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Planeteer Capital led the round, with participation from Blackbird, Wedgetail, Cameron Adams and Possible Ventures. Roughly 50 accounting firms have embraced Sumday's software for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) accounting.
3. Funding - Climate ERP Software: Cozero has raised €6.5 million in Series A funding, led by Kvanted and ENV. Moreover, NewAlpha Asset Management and several business angels participated in the round. Cozero develops Climate ERP software. Early adopters include Maersk, Nippon Express Europe (NX Group), and DMG MORI. The software allows customers to report and reduce corporate carbon emissions, Cozero asserts. Cozero, founded in 2020, is based in Berlin, Germany.
4. Funding - AI Chips: Rivos has raised more than $250 million to develop a less costly chip for artificial intelligence use cases, Bloomberg reported.
5. Funding - Clean Energy: Fossil fuel giant Chevron's venture arm launched a fund — its third — with a $500 million commitment to invest in clean energy technologies, Bloomberg reported.
6. M&A - Onshore Wind Projects: Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has acquired Liberty Renewables, a 1.3 GW portfolio of onshore wind projects in New York. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
7. M&A - Data Centers and Professional Services: Keysource, a provider of sustainable data centre solutions and strategic advisory services, has acquired 2bm Limited, a data center specialist and critical environment company with headquarters in Nottingham, United Kingdom. The deal surfaces roughly one month after Keysource acquired GDM Building Consultants, a provider of engineering, sustainability and facilities management solutions. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
8. Complete M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. COP29: Azerbaijan officials are seeing disagreements between states and parties over the central focus of this year’s summit — climate finance, Bloomberg reported.
2. United States - Transportation: Amtrak has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to seek options to help transform the company’s rail fleet with zero-emissions technology.
3. Renewable Energy: Seven countries now generate nearly all of their electricity from renewable energy sources, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The details: Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power, The Independent reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Green IO Conference Singapore 2024 (April 18, Singapore)
- Sustainability Conference on Water as Sustenance (Stanford University, California)
- Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development 2024 (April 22-24, Grenada)
- EarthX Congress of Conferences 2024Â (April 22-26, Dallas, Texas)
- Hannover Messe 2024: Industrial Sustainability Conference (April 22-26, Germany)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
- Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
- Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.
